I always think of them as giant marshmellows waiting for the next smores round-up

Christine Southwick
N Seattle/Shoreline
clsouthwick at q.com

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On Sun, 1 Jul 2012, Sherry Hagen wrote:

> Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:17:13 -0700
> From: Sherry Hagen <littlebirder at gmail.com>
> To: jeff gibson <gibsondesign at msn.com>
> Cc: tweeters at washington.edu
> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] The Savannah Roll
>
>
> What an imagination but colorful.
>
> Sherry Hagen
> Vancouver, WA
> littlebirder at gmail.com
>
> On Jul 1, 2012 11:10 AM, "jeff gibson" <gibsondesign at msn.com> wrote:
> I like food rolls, like Egg Rolls, Spring Rolls, and particularly Sushi Rolls in their many forms. Up here in Snohomish County we got a big new vegetarian roll -
> the Savannah Roll .Really they're just those new-fangled hay rolls one see's these days in place of old-fashioned hay bales. Wrapped in white plastic, they have the
> appearance and dimensions, of a giant roll of toilet paper in a wrapper.
>
> Arriving on the scene of Fields Riffle (just downstream of Snohomish)? on June 28 I found the hayfields there newly mowed and rolled up! I'd been warning the local
> Savannah Sparrows about this annual event, since on recent trips there I noted that this beautiful patch of grass - I call it a Savannah in honor of the local
> sparrows- was due to be mowed. "Hang on to your tail feathers because your hood is about to be rolled!" I told those birds. I do wonder how tuned into this event
> the Savannah's are, since they are here every year. Maybe they have their first brood done? in time- probably, since they prevail here.
>
> Anyway, it was all mowed, rolled and bagged. In the fall cutting in October last year, I was also around just after the fact, and reported on Tweeters on finding
> the field "full" of Ravens (more than 20 ) stalking, and eating, the many newly exposed Voles (AKA meadow mice) after their nice sheltering meadow done got rolled.
> I thought that was somewhat exceptional for the general area. So I had that in mind, but kind of thought that I wouldn't find Ravens this time of year. But I did-?
> three Raven's flew up as soon as I arrived, then flew off. There were also Crows out in the field, 10 or so, and they stuck around, hunting the field. Last year the
> Ravens were hauling out many full grown Voles, but the Crows were getting smaller stuff. One Crow did hit a mouse "mother load"- a vole nest, and glorked down
> several baby mice like Corvid sashimi (furry, with tails). Interestingly, every single Corvid out there, Raven and Crow alike, were panting, mouths open even in
> flight. It was barely 70 degrees, but I suppose warmer on the ground out in the field. That got me to thinking about what the evolutionary benefits of being a black
> bird are. It's sort of a downer on a warm day, being such a great solar collector. But of course Raven's live quite well in the desert.
>
> What with the white-wrapped Savannah Rolls and all, looking like a field of giant T.P. rolls,? I did come up with a great Tourist scheme for the County ag boosters:
> Paul Bunyan's Outhouse. Doing some simple landscaper math in my head (the only kind I'm capable of) I figured that based on the size of the Savannah Rolls that
> Paul's outhouse would have be about 90 ft tall.? It could be built out of recycled barn wood from all the many ancient , and failing, barns around here. But this
> would'nt just be some tacky cornball tourist deal, it would also double as bird habitat! Just think of it: each corner of the structure could incorporate hollow
> tubes - four 90 ft Vaux's Swift roosts! Add numerous holes, shelves, and grottoes and imagine the swallows, barn owls, woodpeckers etc that could nest there! Not
> only the worlds largest outhouse, but the worlds largest birdhouse!? To make it even more Green, neighboring Riverside Topsoils could extend their composting
> facility to the base and make it the worlds largest composting toilet. Just sayin.
>
> On the way out of the field ( Lazuli Buntings still there) the farmers were back on their tractors, and I got to see how they wrap those rolls. With a slick
> rotating roller attatchment to the tractor the oparation works remarkably like an Orb -Weaver spider wrapping its prey in wide swaths of spider silk. Well, sort of.
> I haven't witnessed how them rolls are made- yet.
>
> Jeff Gibson
> rolling down the river road near
> Snohomish WA
>
>
>
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